The invention relates to an airbag arrangement comprising a gas generator and an airbag having at least two inflatable airbag regions, wherein both airbag regions are attached to the gas generator by interconnecting a T-shaped connecting piece having outlet stubs of different outlet cross-sections.
This type of airbag arrangement is described for example in EP 0 808 257 B1, in which the attachment for the gas generator is located between two airbag regions to be filled. Although a T-shaped connecting piece for connecting the gas generator to the two airbag regions to be attached is not explicitly presented, the necessity of a connecting piece configured in this manner, wherein the outlet channels of the connecting piece inevitably can or must be embodied differently as a function of the volume of the respectively attached airbag region, said outlet channels leading to the attached airbag regions, is evident to the person skilled in the art. An airbag arrangement of this type having front and rear airbag regions featuring different filling volumes is disclosed in GB 2 390 576 A, for example.
If it is necessary to store and, in particular, transport an airbag arrangement of this type prior to its assembly in a motor vehicle, it cannot be excluded that an unintentional triggering of the gas generator can occur due to external influences, such as in the event of an accidental building fire. There therefore exists a requirement on airbag arrangements of this type, that the airbag arrangement behave thrust-neutral in such a case, that is, no recoil effect that causes a movement of the connecting piece in the airbag arrangement to occur in one direction or the other. Since the T-shaped connecting piece must have different outlet cross-sections if a T-shaped connecting piece is to be used in an airbag arrangement described in GB 2 390 576 A, there exists the associated disadvantage that the requirement for a thrust-neutral configuration of the airbag arrangement cannot be met.
It is therefore the problem of the invention to equip an airbag arrangement having the features specified in the introduction in such a manner that, if the gas generator is triggered before the airbag arrangement is installed in a vehicle, no movement of the connecting piece will occur in spite of the fact that the outlet stubs of the connecting piece have differently acting outlet cross-sections when in the installed state.
The solution of this problem, including advantageous embodiments and developments of the invention, arises from the content of the claims, which follow this description.